MOBILE, Ala. -- Local outdoorsman Edmond H. "Eddie" Smith IV told a fellow jail inmate that he wanted no evidence left behind in an alleged plot to have a federal judge and prosecutor killed.

"Needs to be no (expletive) heads. Needs to be no (expletive) skulls," Smith said, according to a secretly taped conversation between the inmate and the defendant. "No (expletive) teeth. No bones. They need to be, we're not payin' for them just to (expletive) be killed. We're paying for a perfect (expletive) erasing."

Eddie Smith A special prosecutor filed the excerpt in Smith's criminal case in U.S. District Court. That and other recorded conversations figure to play a prominent role in Smith's upcoming trial on solicitation-of-murder charges. He is scheduled to go on trial next month, although his lawyer has asked for a postponement.

Defense attorney J. Clark Stankoski said his client's jailhouse comments amounted to blowing off steam -- egged on by the inmate -- and that he had no intention of following through.

"There's no question that the words were spoken by our client," Stankoski said. "The question is going to be what his intent was."

The 43-year-old Smith, known for his hunting exploits as well as frequent brushes with the law, made the comments in May to inmate Paul J. Allen. Both were in Mobile County Metro Jail, Smith awaiting sentencing on an illegal ammunition charge.

Law enforcement officials allege that the judge and prosecutor in that case -- U.S. District Judge William Steele and Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Bordenkircher -- were Smith's intended targets, along with three others outside the justice system.

Prosecutors have said Smith was willing to pay for their murders, and the transcripts filed in the case suggest the amount was $150,000.

To test the seriousness of Smith's desire, law enforcement officials sent an undercover Daphne police officer into the jail on June 5 posing as a disbarred lawyer visiting Smith at Allen's request.

During that conversation, Smith brings up the name of a man who prosecutors say he intended to hire to commit the murders.

Much of the 23-page transcript centers on Smith's desire for the undercover officer -- who called himself Dayton Rameriz -- to give him the "device," which prosecutors say is a cell phone that Smith planned to use to set up the murders.

Smith also wanted to be able to talk to the victims just before they were killed, prosecutors allege.

Stankoski said he plans to pursue an entrapment defense: If not for Albert's constant pressing, Smith never would have made the comments he did. Stankoski said Albert, motivated by a desire to curry favor with authorities in his upcoming sentencing on a counterfeit check conviction, planted the seed in Smith's head.

"He then took advantage of this person to try to get his time cut," Stankoski said.

As for Smith's efforts to get hold of a cell phone, Stankoski said there is no evidence that his client intended to use it to set up hits on the judge and prosecutor.

"The government will never be able to prove what he was going to do with that cell phone," he said.